Page 29 - the NOISE August 2013

I mean, a show that I’m actually interested in. (Kurt Vile, anyone?!)
Fish out of water is an apt cliché. Custody Battle picked up on it. Something to the ef- fect of, “We’ve been playing down in base- ments for years,” this was being said from the stage of Flagstaff’s largest indoor venue. They started off the strange evening with a set that reminded me of Minutemen meets Dead Moon. The Replacements cover was so perfect; it has to be better than that silly reunion they got going on over there. Now that’s a joke!
It’s been the year of the Dragon for a few years now. This was the first time I saw them as a four piece. Trying to describe Dragons is kind of difficult. Spacey tropical new age inspired pop jams? Anyway, they brought it. The sound guy brought it. People moshed inappropriately. Austin from Dragons made the excellent point that this was far superior to Firefly. Everyone that went to Firefly is dis- agreeing with me right now. But I could’ve literally taken a shower at this show. (One of the perks of hanging out in the green room with all the nice dudes in these bands.)
I think Them Savages have actually played the Orpheum before, the only band on the bill, I’m almost certain. Their set was power- ful. I didn’t hear a lot of new material and it’s been a long while since I’d seen them. Their minimal arrangement, in such a large setting, becomes mostly strained, screamed vocals which became a little monotonous. The set did however have its moments, and Flag- staff’s love for the band came through.
ROAR is a Phoenix-based band, master- minded by Owen Evans. The four-piece, in this reviewer’s opinion, stole the show. Dressed in drag, like Ronnie Spector, Evans lit up that stage with his strong presence and left-handed guitar shreds. I’d never really seen the band do his impeccable recordings justice before. This was even better. At times, the bass sounded a little farty, but it didn’t take away from how good the songs were.
Not to say Andrew Jackson Jihad were slouches. They went with their full bore rock arrangement, skipping the slightly more in- timate acoustic set, which they seem to be moving further away from, surely to the dis- appointment of some of their eldest fans. I’ve actually talked to some of these guys. It’s like
andrew Jackson Jihad
Bob Dylan at Newport all over again. I really just like the acoustic guitar/stand up bass ar- rangement. Sean would bang on those strings so hard! Shut up, man. These guys make a great f*ckin rock band. It’s not like they’re try- ing to reinvent the wheel here. They manage to continually light the same fire in my brain that was lit when I first started listening to punk rock, whenever that was.
It’s getting harder and harder to light that fire, I’ll tell you what, Ray Manzerek, and these guys do it consistently. Fresh from re- cording their new album with John Congle- ton (!), the band was heavy on energy, but abstained from bombarding Flagstaff with new material and stuck largely with the hits, for better or worse. They did not end with
“Big Bird” which was a teensy teensy bit dis- appointing, but they did refuse an encore, which in my book is really kind of cool, when the encore is just some contrived break for the band slash ego blowjob. Encores are generally very tedious, silly things, especially in the realm of the rock n roll show.
AJJ’s strength remains their slippery na- ture when it comes to description. They’re not folk enough for the folkies (which is why the traditionalist’s argument about their pre- ferred arrangement makes such little sense) and not even close to hardcore, except in perhaps, some of their band philosophies and world outlook. It is almost certainly punk, but only goofily so, songwriter Sean Bonnette is like no other songwriter, except maybe like some red-headed step child of Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, and Townes Van Zant.
This was not just the best show I’ll prob- ably see all summer. It was like the best show I’ve seen in years. To all involved: Keep up the good work. Flagstaff seems very good at cre- ating these moments in much higher ratios than anything that would make any sense. Good job, Flagstaff.
The Microphones
The Glow Pt. 2
P.W. Elverum and Sun label
jjjj
This is a re-release of Phil Elverum’s sev- enth album as the Microphones, and says on the album’s wikipedia page that it is consid-
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